Lyrl's recent activity
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Comment on How can England possibly be running out of water? in ~enviro
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Comment on Famous cognitive psychology experiments that failed to replicate in ~science
Lyrl LinkI remember stereotype threat showing up repeatedly in Science News when I was young, and unconscious bias measurement being the hot thing more recently, it's helpful to learn those failed to hold...I remember stereotype threat showing up repeatedly in Science News when I was young, and unconscious bias measurement being the hot thing more recently, it's helpful to learn those failed to hold up. I had previously seen multiple criticisms of the marshmallow one, not sure if that's just random what I happened to come across or if it's actually had more widespread debunking.
The bilingual one I think was a response to what had been active prejudice against children growing up bilingual. I had a first-generation Korean-American roommate in college who spoke not a word of Korean because her mother believed it would have been harmful for her to grow up knowing anything but English. It makes sense being bilingual doesn't change a person's intelligence, but I think the article could have been improved by covering both directions - no, it doesn't make a person smarter, but neither does it make them stupider.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentPeople are fighting against the 1, 2, 3, 4 nord listed, and I support some of those organizations monetarily, but no one person can effectively fight all of the strategies everywhere all the time.People are fighting against the 1, 2, 3, 4 nord listed, and I support some of those organizations monetarily, but no one person can effectively fight all of the strategies everywhere all the time.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of July 21 in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentAside from Maxwell, I haven't seen anything to support Epstein's associates from being guilty of anything additional to looking the other way from the abuse Epstein committed personally. I find...Aside from Maxwell, I haven't seen anything to support Epstein's associates from being guilty of anything additional to looking the other way from the abuse Epstein committed personally. I find convincing the consistent position of multiple rank and file Justice Department sources to media that the files are kept sealed to protect victims, witnesses, and people suspected due to speculation or bad tips but later cleared.
The very nature of the charges against Mr. Epstein contributed to some of the confusion about what he did. By calling him a sex trafficker, federal officials left many with the impression that Mr. Epstein was selling children to others to be abused, but that was never part of the criminal case against him.
F.B.I. files about the rich and famous tend to be a mix of real intelligence, strange rumors and absurd speculation. For example, federal agents once entertained the notion that Frank Sinatra was in a secret conspiracy with his dentist as they sought to determine whether the singer and actor was a communist sympathizer.
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Comment on Frontline report: Russia’s oil smugglers are running out of ocean as UK freezes 100+ shadow fleet tankers in ~transport
Lyrl LinkThis is interesting, but dates are missing. It describes both UK and EU sanctions packages only as "recent". It's not clear which of the described impacts are from previous rounds of sanctions vs...This is interesting, but dates are missing. It describes both UK and EU sanctions packages only as "recent". It's not clear which of the described impacts are from previous rounds of sanctions vs the latest set, and if any additional impacts can be expected to unfold over time. The inclusion of non-dollar payment for Iranian drones and North Korean troops, which are pretty old news at this point, suggests the whole article is dated, despite its claim of being hot news on July 25 (currently two days ago).
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Comment on The state of American men is — not so good in ~life.men
Lyrl Link ParentIf voters are motivated to go to the polls and mark a candidate because of hating the other candidate, or approving of how their guy is going after the out group, or blindly believing some......money talks and corporations and the rich have the loudest voices. That money is then fueled into ads denigrating opponents, villainizing out groups, and promising programs and policies which will never see the floor of any congressional body.
If voters are motivated to go to the polls and mark a candidate because of hating the other candidate, or approving of how their guy is going after the out group, or blindly believing some obviously impossible program or policy outcome (but it's fine if it fails because "at least they tried unlike the other party that wasn't promising anything like it"), they are contributing to a winning constituent base, and their actions are part of a vicious cycle that drives parties to continue those actions.
I hate that moneyed interests can successfully tap into such self-defeating human characteristics, but these are real human characteristics voters have, and winning votes this way can be (and sadly has been for most of my adult life) the path to having a broad constituent base.
The Democratic party successfully defeated the ranked choice ballot question in Nevada, and the Republican party came very close to killing it in Alaska, but ranked choice currently has a state-wide foothold in Maine and Alaska. I am hopeful that over time the experience in those states will wear off the edge of the "unfamiliar = scary" part of the opposition, and allow it to spread.
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Comment on The state of American men is — not so good in ~life.men
Lyrl Link ParentThe two parties both want to win elections, and will change to attract enough people to do so. I think part of the problem is that Americans want really diverse things, and when there are strong...The two parties both want to win elections, and will change to attract enough people to do so. I think part of the problem is that Americans want really diverse things, and when there are strong feelings on five different ways to address an issue it's a) really challenging to get a majority to agree what to try and b) even if something is negotiated through, a large majority will be unhappy it wasn't their thing.
I believe a second part of the problem is it's tough to figure out the details of what voters care about. Fewer people are members of large community organizations they trust to represent them, and fewer and fewer people answer pollsters every year. The ballet box is the ultimate poll, but when voters only have two choices that "poll" really lacks granularity. I am rooting for ranked choice voting to spread. Even if it still supports two major parties (which it has done in Australia for decades), the additional information of people's second and third choice votes would give way more information to the parties so they could have hard data on what changes would make voters happier and get them more votes.
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Comment on One million and counting: Russian casualties hit milestone in Ukraine war in ~society
Lyrl Link...a recent study by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which puts Russian military deaths at up to 250,000 and total casualties, including the wounded, at over 950,000. Ukraine has suffered very high losses as well, with between 60,000 and 100,000 personnel killed and total casualties reaching approximately 400,000.
...Russian anti-war activists, inside and outside the country, initially believed the rising number of returning bodies would spark public protests... Instead of widespread public discontent, the opposite now appears to be true: many Russians who have lost relatives are urging the Kremlin to press on, convinced that the losses must be justified...
“Any compromise with Ukraine would be a betrayal of the country. A betrayal of the blood our sons have shed,” Shkrebets said. “We need to see this through to the end.” -
Comment on Your brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant for essay writing task in ~tech
Lyrl Link ParentI mean, the same is true of being able to do mental arithmetic - because we now all have calculators in our pockets, the average person today is way less skilled at adding, subtracting,...I mean, the same is true of being able to do mental arithmetic - because we now all have calculators in our pockets, the average person today is way less skilled at adding, subtracting, multiplying, etc. than the average person forty years ago. But that doesn't mean we are on average less cognitively capable, it means we are using our cognition on different tasks, and through that use building up different cognitive circuits.
We don't need to be forcing students to write essays without LLMs any more than we need to be forcing them to do long division on large numbers by hand. We need to be figuring out what the enabled brain work is with the LLM-capable part of the task taken care of, and start teaching students how to develop that skill.
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Comment on ELI5: Why are so many American left-leaning news media capitulating to Donald Trump? in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentI mean, relevant factors include whose money is being prioritized, and over what time scale. Companies that sell outdoorsy hobby stuff will benefit financially from environmental protections....I mean, relevant factors include whose money is being prioritized, and over what time scale. Companies that sell outdoorsy hobby stuff will benefit financially from environmental protections. Fishers will suffer from environmental protections in the short term, but will cease to exist in the long term without responsible stewardship.
In many cases, especially over years to decades instead of just the next quarter, left-wing policies result in more money in people's pockets. The money alone can't explain right-wing views.
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Comment on Inside the scam network in ~tech
Lyrl Link ParentI believe the collapse of the Myanmar government has enabled human trafficking victims to be coerced into pulling romance and pig butchering scams on a larger than historical scale. The person who...I believe the collapse of the Myanmar government has enabled human trafficking victims to be coerced into pulling romance and pig butchering scams on a larger than historical scale. The person who steals people's life savings may be beaten to death if they fail to meet the scam quota. Horrific all the way down.
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Comment on Researchers secretly ran a massive, unauthorized AI persuasion experiment on Reddit users in ~tech
Lyrl Link ParentIt's covered elsewhere - I first saw it in the Atlantic (which I subscribe to), and also heard about it on Hard Fork podcast. Less journalistically, some folks on the Lemmy thread reported some...It's covered elsewhere - I first saw it in the Atlantic (which I subscribe to), and also heard about it on Hard Fork podcast. Less journalistically, some folks on the Lemmy thread reported some details from relevant reddit threads. I'm guessing others also encountered coverage in their normal media sources, so some votes are more informed than just the title, even if they didn't read the 404 article specifically.
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Comment on Aurora’s driverless trucks are making deliveries in Texas in ~transport
Lyrl LinkThey describe it as highway driving, but the couple of articles I found don't address how the trucks get to the highway, or between the highway and their destination. How tightly connected to an...They describe it as highway driving, but the couple of articles I found don't address how the trucks get to the highway, or between the highway and their destination. How tightly connected to an on and off ramp does a sending or receiving warehouse need to be for this to work?
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Comment on Well this terrifies me: Steve Bannon preparing for a third Donald Trump US presidency in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentWhat reactions take hold in a community from a specific action or group of actions is hard to predict. In general, groups of people never change their mind in the "we admit we were wrong" kind of...What reactions take hold in a community from a specific action or group of actions is hard to predict. In general, groups of people never change their mind in the "we admit we were wrong" kind of way, but they can stop supporting something if a face-saving offramp explanation takes hold. I don't know what that would look like for supporters of the current administration, but I have hope it will happen.
To me, talk among opponents of what Trump and his sycophants are doing is an exercise in defensive driving. The administration is running the red light and is culpable for the damage that is causing. Whether the opponents swerve or break or something else might save things of value. Arguing the merits of swerving (continuing to reach out to R reps despite no support for the relationship from their end) versus braking (publicly disrupting everything possible about the R reps jobs) can get heated - the stakes are high - but even if the Ds chosen defensive response turns out to be ineffective, it's good to keep visibility of the administration and all those who support it as the culpable ones. Thanks for bringing that up.
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Comment on Well this terrifies me: Steve Bannon preparing for a third Donald Trump US presidency in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentVoters are pretty wishy washy about how they view candidates. One person's clear, principled, uncompromising resistance is another's unhinged disrespect to their community. I believe it more...Voters are pretty wishy washy about how they view candidates. One person's clear, principled, uncompromising resistance is another's unhinged disrespect to their community. I believe it more likely that proposed disruptive stunts by Democratic representatives would turn off wishy washy Democratic voters, and motivate Trump voters, than add any net engagement in defense of democracy. The only pro-democracy people energized by such a thing are those who are already passionate on the topic.
Democratic representatives maintaining some level of relationship with Republican representatives, so there is a connection that can grow when some of the Rs make the choice to walk away from current excesses, is the best hope of our democracy surviving. That so many activists are clamoring for those ties to be completely and irrevocably cut is deeply scary to me.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of March 17 in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentWhich brings us back to the core question: how could these Democratic Senators support a plan that would simultaneously give Donald Trump unprecedented censorship powers while also consolidating Meta’s control over online speech?
The evidence suggests they simply don’t understand what they’re doing. Each of these Senators has a documented history of fundamental confusion about Section 230 and how the internet works:
*Richard Blumenthal has been getting Section 230 wrong since his days as Connecticut’s AG in the early 2000s.
*Sheldon Whitehouse’s chapter on free speech revealed such profound confusion about Section 230 that it’s hard to believe he’s actually read the law.
*We’ve already covered Durbin and Klobuchar’s dangerous misunderstandings.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump revokes legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentThe article said some of that number might have progressed to less vulnerable immigration statuses, but even if it's not the full 530,000 that's an overwhelming number of people to lose from the...The article said some of that number might have progressed to less vulnerable immigration statuses, but even if it's not the full 530,000 that's an overwhelming number of people to lose from the formal economy. It's a horrible move on humanitarian grounds, and also if they actually get most to leave a horrible move on economic grounds. I guess the play could be to keep them as undocumented workers so they could be abused by employers, which would just be another layer of awful.
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Comment on Well this terrifies me: Steve Bannon preparing for a third Donald Trump US presidency in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentMLK Jr was pretty widely unpopular before his assassination. I agree an activist along similar lines would be unpopular again today: human nature hasn't changed. Republicans want to break things,...MLK Jr was pretty widely unpopular before his assassination. I agree an activist along similar lines would be unpopular again today: human nature hasn't changed.
Republicans want to break things, which they can work towards even in the minority: clogging up government and preventing action advances their agenda.
Building better infrastructure, education, making economic opportunities more widespread: these things take broad and long-term government support. They are not getting done with 52% of the government sometimes supporting them. If Democrats can't get some Republicans on board again with building things, in the context of continuing our democracy, any other action they do is strictly performative and achieves nothing lasting. I see so many people who want the dopamine hit of seeing Democrats in power being nasty to Republicans, but that is basically accepting no actual positive government policies will ever happen again, and in that case we should at least get maximum entertainment value from trash talk.
If liberals decide the confines of our current government are unacceptable, I guess finding a willing liberal-seeming autocrat and attempting to put them in power by violent coup is an option.
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Comment on The real problem with toilet paper: Where it comes from in ~enviro
Lyrl Link ParentIt must vary by inner and outer labia shape and size. The liquid gets all over all of my recesses and requires at least three sets of squares (not handfuls, no, but two fluffy squares or three...It must vary by inner and outer labia shape and size. The liquid gets all over all of my recesses and requires at least three sets of squares (not handfuls, no, but two fluffy squares or three single-ply, three times) per wee to keep me from developing a urine odor through the day. I remember seeing tampon advice of "keep the string positioned so urine doesn't get on it" and being just... unable to figure out any possible way that could work.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of March 10 in ~society
Lyrl Link ParentI suspect Trump implements tariffs because he can (doesn't get blocked by judges), and because it gets him a lot of subservient attention by everyone impacted by the tariffs trying to convince him...I suspect Trump implements tariffs because he can (doesn't get blocked by judges), and because it gets him a lot of subservient attention by everyone impacted by the tariffs trying to convince him to ease them. Then he flails around for post-rationalizations.
On the Canada acquisition, it seems moderately unlikely he is looking for bloody conquest: pride in his negotiating skills likely makes him think he can make a deal of it. On acquiring Canadians as a voting block, it would be in his style to believe they are likely to come to love him, and if not then think he can disenfranchise them (make them US nationals but not citizens like Samoans, or turn Canada into a territory like Puerto Rico instead of a state).
Public companies have no financial incentive to improve infrastructure, because it keeps utility bills low. Taxpayers hate utility bills going up just like private owners hate lowering profits.
Getting buy-in for infrastructure investment before things go completely off the rails is tough in both public-utility and private-utility setups.